South Greenland Tourism

Greenland's Ice

Perhaps more than anything else in the eyes of visitors, ice is the hallmark of Greenland. About 85% of this vast island is covered by the inland ice-cap, which is surpassed in size only by that which covers Antarctica. Greenland's ice-cap is about 1,800,000 sq. km (700,000 sq. miles) in area, or roughly 14 times the size of England. It stretches 2,500 km from north to south and up to 1,000 km from east to west. The ice-cap is up to 3.5 km (1.9 miles) thick and was formed over a period of many hundreds of thousands of years - some of the bottom-most layers have been dated to have been formed around 2 million years ago. Almost 10% of the world's fresh water is contained in the ice-cap, and if it were to melt, it is estimated that sea levels world-wide would rise by about 6-7 meters.

The inland ice is easily accessible in South Greenland, in places on foot, or more usually by a boat trip to one of the many and impressive glaciers that flow down from it and calve ice-bergs into the fjords. During the summer months, when the glaciers are most active and the ice-bergs are free to drift in the unfrozen waterways, many of South Greenland's fjords are filled with ice-bergs of many shapes and sizes and of various shades of white, blue and green. For most visitors, the contrasts between ice, fjord, and southern Greenland's verdant summer landscape are magnificent and unforgettable.

Also unique to South Greenland and something which you may well experience on a visit to this area is the sea or "field" ice which arrives each spring and summer. This consists of vast amounts of ice floes, formed several years previously in the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland and which are then carried by strong currents down Greenland's east coast in the spring and summer, around Cape Farewell, and northwards along the west coast as far as Paamiut. Field ice is frequently blown into South Greenland's fjords where it produces a truly spectacular sight as one sees floe upon floe stretching as far as the eye can see. Although the field ice can cause problems for shipping, it is also welcomed by locals for the many seals that it brings with it, as well as the occasional polar bear.

It is fair to say that your experiences of the ice-cap, glaciers, ice-bergs and field ice when in South Greenland are likely to be among those which will remain with you throughout your life.



South Greenland briefing
Introduction The History Greenland's Ice Hiking Getting here

The towns and municipalities
Paamiut Ivittuut Narsaq Narsarsuaq Qaqortoq Nanortalik

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